$33.7 million in bonds will pay for project
By Dolores Quintana
The Veterans Affairs Campus will be the site of a second permanent supportive housing project now that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has voted to release $33.7 million in bonds to pay for it as reported by Urbanize Los Angeles. The tax-exempt bond money will go to Thomas Safran and Associates who will develop Building 402 at 11301 Wilshire Boulevard.
Even though the name of the new project seems to indicate that it is a single building, the project is actually 11 modular buildings that would host 120 studio and two-bedroom apartments that will be reserved for formerly unhoused veterans. To qualify for residency, a household would be required to make at or below 30 to 50 percent of the area’s income level median.
According to the LA County Supervisors’ staff report, the firm that will design Building 402 is The Architects Collective. Apartments will be furnished and the modular buildings will have common areas like a central plaza that will have picnic areas and a theater, a community room and a fitness center. Supportive service providers will be on-site in office spaces that will be built into the complex. The complex will also have two parking lots that will hold 55 vehicles.
Building 402 is projected to be completed by August of 2025 after construction begins in December 2022 according to the application for tax credit financing points. This is another part of the $1.1 billion dollar renovation project on the Veterans Affairs site. Eventually, the project is working towards the site hosting 1,700 homes with plans to either construct new buildings or adaptively reuse existing buildings already onsite.